For a Yes, For a No
by Sperulez
Summary: Heard of Tales of the Slayer? It's about slayers before Buffy. This one's about a slayer in 1980.
1. Chapter 1

Montreal, Quebec 1980

"Good morning Montreal! You're listening to CJAD, and it's a cold one out there so bundle up! Today's headlines are…"

Sophie hit the snooze button. It was way too early to get up. It was cold, and the bed that she was lying in was so warm... Just a few more minutes…

RING. The phone stopped her from slipping away into a dream. She forced herself to pick up the receiver and mutter what resembled a greeting.

"Mwhello?"

"Hey Sophie! Did I wake you? Sorry about that, just wanted to let you know that I'll meet you today around 5, instead of 4. See ya then!"

"Ok…"

Francis. Her best friend, she could always count on him, through all she had been through. He had always been there for her. Even before her calling. 

Sophie got out of bed grumpily, why was it always so cold in the morning in her apartment? She didn't live in the classiest part of the city, but would it kill the landlord to install a proper heating system? 

She quickly dressed herself, jeans and a comfortable sweater. Next door she could hear the television  blaring away. Some French all news channel. "More riots have broken out in the city, over the upcoming referendum. 23 people have been arrested, 8 have been taken to the hospital."

Sophie was used to hearing news like that. The upcoming referendum would decide if the province of Quebec would separate from the rest of Canada. On the one side there were the federalists voting against the separation, they were mostly Anglophones. Voting for the separation were the separatists, or nationalists, comprised mostly of Francophones.

It was all people could talk about in the city. Tensions were high between the French and English speaking of the province.  Each camp insulting the other, local immigrant's commerces being vandalized, riots, every day it was something else. 

But Sophie didn't care about all this. She spoke French but could hold up her own in an English conversation. She didn't care if you were French or English, only if you were human or not.

She had to eat breakfast quickly if she wanted to meet Peter on time. Peter was her Watcher. He lived in the same building, but owned a bookshop on St-Catherine street in the central part of the city. These past few months had been a little hard on Peter, he spoke French, but had an obvious English accent, being from England and all. On more than one occasion he had found his shop graffitied with insults  by extreme French separatists. 

Sophie opened the kitchen cabinets, hoping to fine more to eat than she did. Her eyes set on an old box of Pop-Tarts. She grabbed one, ate it quickly while filling her backpack for the day. 

Outside, it was cold. Even though spring had supposedly arrived, it still felt like winter had just begun. She adjusted her scarf and set out for Peter's shop. 

"You're late" Peter said from behind the counter while sorting out some papers.

"Metro stopped for awhile in between two stations. There's nothing I could do." Sophie put her backpack on the counter and took off her coat, and tried to bring back warmth into her frozen fingers.

"That's what you said two days ago. Find anything while patrolling yesterday?" He looked up from his papers to stare at Sophie from behind his small glasses.

"Just a couple of vamps in an alley near the apartment. Nothing too challenging."

"Don't get-" But before he could complete his sentence, she cut him off.

"Too cocky, I know, I know. Hey did you hear about the riots yesterday?"

"Hasn't everyone? I think I shall be glad when all of this is over."

"I just think all of this is stupid, who cares what language you speak? If people knew what really was lurking around at night, I think they would spend a lot less time bitching against other nationalities."

A customer entered the shop, smiled at Peter and Sophie, and disappeared behind a bookshelf.

"Well I'll be in the backroom training." Sophie declared. Peter just nodded, concentrating on writing out some book receipts.

The hours quickly passed as she trained. She was most at ease with a sword, but could do deadly damage with pretty much anything. It had been 3 years since she had been called. She was living in the streets when it had happened, drifting here and there in youth housings. It had been a chilly autumn night when a man had approached her. That was how it had all begun. Peter had bought his shop and hired Sophie, to insure her a decent income. To teach her in the ways of a Slayer, he had transformed the back room into a training facility. He was amazed by how quickly she learned, but also supposed that all Watchers were.

Sophie took a bottle of water out of her bag and wiped the sweat from her forehead. 

"Getting tired? I thought you had that super endurance thing going for ya." Francis was standing at the front of the room, smiling at her.

"Hey, didn't hear you come in. What's up? Thought we were meeting at 5." 

"There were pyromaniac acts near the supermarket, they thought it would be safer to close it for the day. Extreme nationalists acting up I think. So anyway, I thought you'd be here and maybe we could go grab lunch?"

"Yeah sure, I'll just change and we'll be off!"

As they walked together in the cold streets looking for a good and cheap place to eat, they talked about everything; from the latest hockey game to the cold weather, to her latest patrol. Francis was everything to her, and aside from Peter, the only person she could really count on in her life. She always thought that he had a little crush on her, but never asked him about it. He had been there on the streets with her, and after Sophie received her calling, he got a job as a truck loader. That hadn't lasted long, but since then, he always managed to find work and a place to live. Now he stayed in a building no too far from where Sophie lived.

"So you think this will all go away once the referendum is over?" He asked as they crossed a street.

"I think people will always argue over petty things like language, race and religion. I hope it gets better, but I'm not counting on it. Politics isn't my thing anyway. I'm not going to vote, and if I did, I don't even know what I would vote for!"

As they sat in the restaurant, Francis talked about his latest argument with his neighbor over the volume of the radio. She listened to him, but her eye caught the man sitting in the next booth. He was alone at his table, and was reading "Le Journal de Montréal". She didn't know him, but got an uneasy sense about him, and knew what that probably meant. She watched him get up, fold the paper he was reading, and go into the back of the restaurant. She looked at Francis, nodded in the direction that the man had taken, took a stake out of her backpack and slipped it into her pocket, and got up. 

"Stay here Francis, I don't think this will take too long."

 The man at the counter eyed her as she pretended to go toward the bathroom,  but when she saw that he was no longer looking at her, she slipped into a corridor that the vampire had gone down a few seconds before. The walls were bare, wallpapered plain white and she could see that she was walking toward a single door near the end. There was light coming from the crack at the bottom of the closed door, and as she walked towards it she could hear conversation from within the room.

"This will be the biggest thing that any of us have ever accomplished! No one will ever suspect anything!" Other voices joined in the conversation, all agreeing with the first one.

She stopped in the middle of her tracks. She tried to calculate how many people were in that room. 4? 10?  4 she thought she could handle, but 10 was pushing it. Peter always told her that her main weakness was her confidence. More than once she had almost been killed because she attacked a group of too many vampires. She listened to Peter's voice in her mind and decided to not burst in the room. She made her way back to where Francis was seated and told him what had happened. 

" We'll report to Peter about this, see what he has to say. Don't leave a tip, Francis"

"Well I'm glad your common sense kicked in and you didn't try to do anything rash, for once." Peter said as he looked at Sophie who was playing with a pocketknife. All three were seated at a table in the store. No customers were there, so they could speak without lowering their voices. 

"It just seems weird, I think something is going on. With all the political tension these days, it's the perfect opportunity for killings to go unnoticed. People are too preoccupied to realize that there are more dead bodies turning up than usual." 

"I agree Sophie, keep your eyes open and be careful! And don't take on-"

"More than I can handle, yeah, yeah."

"I'll be on the lookout with her, Peter. I'll keep Sophie company" Francis winked at Sophie, who smiled back. 


	2. Chapter 2

The weeks passed. They found nothing. Even returning to the restaurant proved useless. Sophie figured that the vampires probably found a new meeting place. The snow melted, and the referendum was less than a fortnight away. 

Peter's store was home to insulting graffiti a few more times, but he didn't let it get to him. They hadn't found anything about any evil plan, and Sophie was beginning to doubt that the man was even a vampire. 

It was a cool night, but not to cold, comfotable enough for just a long sleeved shirt. Sophie was on her nightly patrol. She was walking around the Old Port. It was kind of a tourist attraction, sort of like a boardwalk where you could rent bicycles, stroll around, and have your portrait drawn by artists who set up their booths along the paved way. The sort of place where one who would stray away from the public place could meet a deadly end. Sophie was enjoying the crisp night, even forgetting for a minute or two what she was doing there. Then she saw him. She recognized him immediately. The man from the restaurant. All doubts about his vampirism melted away. The way he was eyeing a young lady a dozen meters away from him, Sophie knew exactly what he was thinking. Dinner.

She went over to a group of people gathered around a girl being drawn. They were clapping at the artist's rendition of her on paper. The group would hide her, and allow her to watch the vampire without being noticed. The lady was heading off toward a side street, probably to get her car. Parking was tough around here, and the only way to do it was park on a street far from the main crowd. She watched Vampy and saw him make his move, start to follow his prey. Sophie even thought she saw him lick his lips. She kept her distance from him, always keeping her eye on him. Even though she thought she didn't need to be too discreet. He was so concentrated on his next meal, that Sophie thought she could probably follow him from less than a few feet and he wouldn't notice. 

The lady arrived at her car, opened her purse up and started to search for her keys, when a noise made her jump and turn around, to face Vampy.

"Est-ce que je peux vous aider?" She asked nervously.

"Yes, you can help me. I'm kind of hungry…" The beast showed its true face, his distorted figures, and yellow eyes mocking the woman, who fainted.

"Hey pal, I don't think she can help you. Besides, I think you should go on a diet, looks like you've been letting yourself go!" Sophie said from behind him.

He turned to face her. A confused look on his face, as he was unused to being mocked by a human. The confusion didn't last long. He lunged at Sophie, who evaded his attack by stepping to the side, all while kicking him in the gut. Vampy quickly recovered and was on her in a flash. He hit her with a left uppercut, she stumbled a bit, but regained her bearings rapidly, took a stake out of her pocket, and threw it in the vampires leg. He yelped and fell back, clutching his wounded leg.

"You think a stake in the leg hurts? I hear one in the chest could do some real damage to a fellow like you."

She ran to him, grabbed her weapon, and sat on his chest with her stake pointed at his midsection.

"Now you're going to give me some answers. I saw you a couple of weeks ago in a restaurant conversing with some buddies about some big plan. What you're going to tell me is what you're thinking of doing. And if you don't want to cooperate with me, I know a million ways to torture your kind. A little sunlight here, a little holy water there, it's quite entertaining." The vampire looked up at her, and quickly guessed she wasn't kidding.

"You'll never stop it. You'll just die with the rest of them" he spat.

"Who? Tell me!" She punched him, the vampire laughed.

It's going to be the greatest thing yet, all those people. The night of the referendum when the seperatists are gathered at Paul-Sauvé auditorium to await the outcome of the vote, that's when well make our move."

"But what are you going to do with all those corpses?" Sophie knew what he was about to say, but wished she didn't.

"They'll never suspect anything. The blame will quickly be put, but not on us" he laughed more, blood dripping from his mouth. Sophie knew what they were planning.

"After you've dined, you're gonna blow up the place, and then blame it on the federalists!" Sophie felt like throwing up. Who knew what effects it would have, tensions were already skyhigh between the two groups. And all those unsuspecting people… The vampire grinned at her, and she had enough. She staked him. Soon she was just sitting on a pile of dust. 

She was so distraught by what she had just learned, that she almost forgot the lady who had fainted. She rushed over to her and lightly tapped her on the cheek. The woman opened her eyes, and Sophie convinced her that she just had a fainting spell. Thank god people repress things so easily, Sophie thought.

"Who is it?" Francis' voice rang out from the intercom in his building's doorway.

"It's me." She heard the buzz of the door opening and rushed over to the elevator. She was soon knocking loudly at his door.

"Shut up with that racket! I'm trying to sleep here. Maudit… " Francis' neighbor cried from inside his place.

Soon Francis was standing in his doorway in a t-shirt and flannel pyjama pants. He immediately saw the panicked look on Sophie's face, because he inquired about it.

"Soph, what's wrong?" He moved aside so she could enter his place. It was a small place, a little untidy, but cozy. She paced around the small living room.

"I found out what they're planning! Oh god, it's horrible" She started to cry. Francis had never seen her this emotional before, and it worried him.

After she had told him, she lay down on the couch. Francis could see that she was exhausted, the night's events had depleted her of her energy, mental and physical. He grabbed a blanket from the closet and put it on Sophie. He sat in a chair near her and watched her sleep.


	3. Chapter 3

"I'm very proud of you Sophie. You found out what it was they were planning. We can stop this you know, I have trained you well enough." It was the next morning, at Peter's shop. He had closed it down for the day, and they were all in the backroom.

"We'll be right there beside you, we'll stop it, you'll see." Sophie managed to give a weak smile to her best friend. It's not that she didn't believe Francis, it was that for the first time in her life, she was afraid to die. She had never felt this way, since she moved off the streets. She never gave a lot of thought to the whole process of the calling of the slayer. One died, another rose. Time after time since the beginning of the world. She had once asked Peter who had died to make her the slayer. He briefly told her of a girl 3 years ago in New York, but didn't go into details. Watchers didn't like talking about the deaths of slayers, however inevitable they were. He rarely showed emotion, but Sophie knew that making him talk about slayers' deaths pained him. She supposed it reminded him how limited the chosen one's life really is, and one day his own charge would be killed. But another would be chosen. How morbid the whole process really was. In death comes life. 

"So what do we know so far? The date, in less than 2 weeks. The place, at Paul-Sauvé auditorium. I'd say we have a pretty good chance here." Francis looked at the two others. 

"We need a plan, obviously. But we can't just go waltzing in shouting for people to get out. I suppose the vampires will cut power to place, then feast, and then blast the place." Peter was deep in thought, obviously trying to figure a way to solve this without alerting the general public of the presence of the undead.

"We'll go the auditorium, wait for them to show up, and kill them before they can do anything. We'll get them outside, before they have a chance to harm anyone." Sophie's confident tone returned.

"Do we know how many they'll be?" Francis turned to Peter, then to Sophie.

"No, but we've got to expect a high number of enemies." Peter responded.

"So we've got less than 2 weeks to prepare. Francis, you get as many weapons as possible. Peter, you try to gather more information, and I'll get myself ready."

The days passed quickly, as they prepared for the confrontation. Sophie trained every day, Peter tried to get info from different sources around the city, and Francis brought to the shop every weapon he could find.

Sophie felt confident once again. She was the slayer, this was her job, and she would kick their asses.

The day arrived. Early in the morning they gathered at Peter's shop. All commerces were closed, students had the day off, and people gathered and waited in lines to cast their vote. Everywhere people were nervous about the outcome of the day. Sophie was also. All weapons were in the back room. Sophie tried to train lightly so not to tire herself, but felt too nervous, so she just paced around the shop. At noon they all went to the local sandwich place, and ate in silence. The afternoon was spent by more preparation. Polls closed at 7pm. That's when the separatists would arrive at the auditorium to await the results. That's when Sophie, Peter, and Francis would get there.The vampires would probably arrive after the beginning of the meeting, as to insure a bigger feast.

Sophie looked at her watch. 6:27. It was time to get ready.

They all gathered in the backroom around the pile of weapons to gear up. Peter took several stakes, putting them in different pockets in his overcoat. He also took a few crosses.

Francis also took stakes and had a plastic gourd with holy water in it.

Sophie opened her backpack, and filled it with a few stakes and crosses. She also took the 2 walkie-talkies Francis had brought, she put them in her bag. She then took a good sized knife and tied it to her belt. They were ready.

The streets were empty, people were all inside in front of their television sets awaiting anxiously to see what the outcome of the vote would be. They took a cab to the east end of the city, where they were headed.

Something about the air. There was a distinct smell to it. Almost a taste, Sophie thought. She didn't linger on it too long, she had other things to think about.

The auditorium was all lit up. People were pilling in. The doors would close at 7:30, and then it would all begin. Sophie scouted to area. A not too large building. One floor. One main entrance, and one small backdoor. There was no telling wich way the vampires would enter. 

"We'd better split up. Francis, you and Peter go guard the main entrance, take a walkie-talkie, we'll stay in contact. I'll guard the back door." She handed Francis the walkie-talkie. 

"Uh, Sophie, um. There's something. Um, you know, in case… Oh what the hell…" He stepped forward and kissed her quickly. Then turned toward Peter nodded at him, and they were off. 

As she stood near the backdoor, she could hear what was going on inside. People were cheering, confident that the vote would go their way. 

"Hey Soph, ya there?" Francis' voice coming from the walkie-talkie in her hand. There was static while he spoke, but as long as she could hear him, it didn't matter.

"Yeah, I'm here. Anything up by you guys?" She stared at the horizon as she spoke. No one there.

"Nope, they just closed up the main entrance. Looks like they're starting."

15 long minutes went by. 20. Nothing happened. Maybe it was all a hoax, maybe the vampire had just played with her mind. She really wished that was it. Nothing was going to happen, and she could go home, get some rest, and continue her somewhat normal life. But that wasn't going to happen, and deep inside she knew it.

At 8:00, she saw them coming. About 12 of them. They all wore the true face of the beast. Their yellow eyes gleaming in the dark. 

"Francis, Peter! I see 'em. Are there any where you are?" She got her weapons ready.

"About 8 of them, they're heading this way. We'll dust them, then come and help you."

"Don't worry about me, I can take 'em all. You just concentrate on not getting yourselves killed!"

Sophie saw them approach, but they didn't seem to notice her, she was hidden in the shadows. As they walked toward the building, they talked loudly, laughed, and congratulated themselves on thinking of such a good plan. The first one reached the backdoor, and as he was reaching for the handle, he didn't even realize what was going on before he became a big pile of dust. She had ran out of the shadows and staked him, as the others all stopped. 

"Yeah. I don't think so, folks. The buffet's closed. Sorry." 

They weren't about to let some girl interrupt their plans without a fight. They looked at each other, then attacked Sophie.

It was all a blur. She kicked, she punched, she staked. She had killed a few before she realized it. Soon a handfull had been turned to powder. One of them got a hold of her arm and pulled her toward him, trying to get his fangs onto her neck, but she turned around and kicked him in the face, he let go and she brought her attention to one who held a knife. She ducked at his attempts to cut her throat, and tripped him, he went down and soon became Sophie's latest kill, as she planted wood in his chest. The fight continued, she lost track of time, but continued to stake a vampire here and there. Before she knew it, only 4 remained. All her nervousness was gone, she had killed 8, and there was only a third of the initial group left, this was going to end well after all. She smiled knowing that only in a few hours she would be back at her place, resting. 

The last 4 stood around her. One came at her from behind, she could smell the odor of decay up close, it was stomach turning. Holding a stake in one hand, and her knife in the other, Sophie managed to hit him with her elbow, turn around and slit his throat with her knife. Then before he knew it, she staked him. She turned her attention to the remaining 3. She saw a vampire look at her, look around him and bolt. 2 left.

"Well, the crowd is getting a little thin here." Sophie laughed, wiping the sweat and blood away from her forehead.

She attacked the remaining, soon only one was left. 

"Heh, well looks like you're all alone here pal. Sucks doesn't it?" She was feeling pretty good now. One left. That's all that was standing in her way of victory.

She held out her hand with the knife pointing toward her foe, and smiled. 

She took one step forward, but someone grabbed her from behind, took her right arm that held the sharp knife, and shoved into her gut. She didn't know what had happened. She looked down. She was holding the knife into her stomach. Blood was dripping down everywhere. She turned around and faced the vampire who had bolted earlier. He was laughing, mocking her for her overconfidence. 

"SOPHIE!!!" She heard Francis screaming, he was running toward them. He jumped on the vampire who had surprised her, while Peter took care of the other one. Francis quickly took care of his enemy, and right after dusting him, ran over to Sophie, who was kneeling on the ground, still shocked by the blood on her hands and her shirt. 

Francis kneeled next to her with tears in his eyes. She lay her head down on his lap, as she started to taste blood in her mouth. Peter came over, sat next to the two, and placed a hand on Francis' shoulder, who was crying.

"You'll be fine. You'll be fine. We'll get help." A tear from his face fell onto Sophie's.

"We did it. We saved them. Don't cry, I'm right here." She had trouble speaking, but felt bizarrely calm.

"Peter, I'm sorry." Peter looked at her, and a sweet smile appeared on his lips, but he said nothing.

"Francis. I love you." She was finding it harder and harder to breathe.

"I love you Sophie." 

And then, it was dark.

THE END


End file.
